BRITS are buckling up as the Met Office issued an urgent danger to life warning as eight inches of the white stuff is set to fall with 80mph winds.

A chaotic combination of strong gales, heavy rain and snow will take hold from Tuesday across the UK as Storm Barra hits and temperatures continue to plummet.

Almost all of the country is covered by yellow weather warnings for snow, ice, and wind, with a five-day deep freeze on the way.

Forecasters have warned to expect travel disruption, loss of power and danger to life as a toxic mix of floodwater and powerful winds take hold later on.

The Met suggested many will be waking up to a cold start on Tuesday morning, as Storm Barra quickly arrives from the west.

The second named storm of the season will bring strong winds that "will spread inland and reach eastern areas through the afternoon and early evening".

Chief Meteorologist at the Met Office, Frank Saunders, said a band of rain will turn to snow across northern England and Scotland today.

Yellow snow and ice warnings have been issued from 11am until midnight on Tuesday.

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Another Met meteorologist added: "It is going to feel cold wherever you are with the wind picking up during the day, especially cold in the north and the east and as a result when the rain arrives in the north we are likely to see a spell of snow.

"That of course accompanied by gale force winds will lead to blizzards and drifting so some really treacherous conditions for northern England, central and southern Scotland during the second half of Tuesday likely to affect the higher roads like the M74 and M8 in places."

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Further weather warnings remain in place for rain and windthroughout Wednesday in some areas.

The strongest gusts of wind will hit the South West, Wales and Scotland, with a "small chance" of "injuries and danger to life" occurring from flying debris and large waves.

Forecaster Marco Petagna said: “It looks a nasty weather system, with low pressure deepening rapidly. It's going to be very windy.”

While there are no more weather warnings in place for the rest of the week, temperatures are set to plummet.

Currently, there are 36 flood alerts in place as heavy rain is also expected to hit the country.

The Environmental Agency said: “River, surface water and coastal flooding is possible on Tuesday and Wednesday due to spells of heavy rain and strong winds.

"Properties may flood and there may be travel disruption.”

Thousands of homes are still without power after several areas of Scotland and northern England were hit by storm Arwen a few days ago.

Those affected will be reconnected "by today at the latest", the Prime Minister has said.

Boris Johnson said he spoke to the chief executive of Northern Powergrid on Monday, and that he had been told of the new target.

WET, WINDY AND COLD

But a deadline set on Wednesday last week had already been missed as MPs heard there was something "seriously wrong" at the supplier.

Earlier last week, Downing Street said properties affected by the power cuts caused by Storm Arwen should have supply restored "by the end of the week", but more than 1,000 remained cut off on Monday.

Energy minister, Greg Hands, said it was "completely unacceptable" that around 1,600 households were still without power.

More areas are expected to be affected as more bad weather is set to hit from Thursday.

A Met Office forecaster said: “Thursday will be rather cold in the North, and it then becomes wet and windy again, with Friday and Saturday also seeing hill snow likely.”

Meanwhile, forecasters have not ruled out the possibility of a White Christmas as December is set to be very cold with temperatures expected to reach -10C.

Mr Madden said: “December will start to turn very cold early on and these cold conditions will continue throughout the month.

“There are some notable snow events looking possible around just after the second week of the month, and these could be widespread and heavy wintry downpours.

“Christmas Day is looking largely dry and cold at the moment, but things can change, and we still can’t rule out a White Christmas.

“Throughout the month, widespread frosts and temperatures of -10C or below will be possible as north and north-easterly winds develop.”

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